January 2025

 DINNER WITH THE BRENCHLEYS
We finally had the opportunity of going out to dinner with Devan's parents.  We've actually been talking about getting together with their family for years.  This was a little different now that Kelly and Devan are engaged.  It was such a good time though!  We all got along really well.  I'm really glad it went so well and that we are all on the same page.  I feel like they were so fun to talk to.  I felt like we have quite a bit in common especially kid ages and the span of parenting years.  Kinda fun to have a friend in the same boat really.  It is nice to know that we will be able to enjoy Kelly's in-laws and that we don't have to worry about the dreaded combined things :).  It will actually be really nice.  1-3-25

DRESS SHOPPING FOR KELLY
This was exciting!  And a first for all of us!  Charity, Kelly, Erika, Molly and I all met up to be there while Kelly picked out her wedding dress!!  So fun!  She tried on a LOT of dresses, but only came out in three of them.  The first one she really liked and gave it a 9.  The second one was not better than the first so we forgot about that one.  Then the third one, she came hopping and skipping out of the dressing room and had the biggest smile on her face!  We could all tell she liked this one the best!!  I was hesitant for her to pick right away and wanted her to be able to try on as many as she wanted, but she had chosen the perfect/only sleeves she wanted, and this one had the perfect neckline and the skirt was just what she wanted as well, so this one was IT!  She was so happy and got all excited for it!!  We were all feeling all the feels for her! It was so fun!  We got to take a picture with her to be posted on social media for the company whose name has escaped my mind- but they were very awesome!  I would highly recommend this company!  This was a really neat experience.  I'm so glad Kelly let us in on it.  1-6-25

ERIKA'S FIRST GAME OF THE SEASON
Erika's team is made up of 3 9th graders (two of whom- Erika and Kate- were not technically on varsity last year) and one who would not have made varsity.  Then there was only one girl who had been on varsity last year and the rest were 8th and very inexperienced 7th graders.  So in my mind this was going to be a building year.  I had seen it with Kelly's lacrosse teams and knew it could be a tough one with lots of losses and growing.  But this first game was not indicative of that at all!!  This team is amazing!!  They played so hard!!  I was so impressed!!  We totally killed them!  It's going to be an awesome season!  1-7-25

TENDING BRIGGS
Courtney got called to Hawaii to investigate a fire there and needed a sitter for a short time Thursday evening.  It happened to be the night of my first Presidency meeting, so I left a lot of it to Nate and the kids- mostly Noah.  But I was able to hang out with him a little when I got home.  Such a cute little guy!!  I love that she has a baby and that I got to spend some time with him.  He really was so sweet and easy while he was here.  Just a slight drooling problem :).  But such a sweetie!  Didn't cry at all.  So fun!  Brett came and got him when he got off work- unfortunately we didn't have him asleep.  1-9-25

CELEBRATING SADIE'S BIRTHDAY AT SCHOOL
I got to go to Sadie's class and celebrate her birthday with her.  We got to talk all about her birthday poster and all the pictures.  They loved the one of her in Brad's backpack.  She got to talk in the microphone which was awesome.  She forgot her stuffy and I didn't read her mind that I needed to bring it so that was a bummer, but she did get to pass out her mamba candies to everyone and that was a fun thing for her.  She loved this!!  Then I got to stay for centers.  1-10-25

NOAH FAMILY PARTY
We had a fun little afternoon party for Noah- a lot of the family came to Erika's rec game before and then we were able to have a nice little party.  Nate slaved over the teriyaki chicken for sandwiches at Noah's request and then I made some Ramen and Grape Salads.  We had a good turn out.  Grandpa Hatch and Jo, Grandma Hatch and Simon, Grandma Ruthie and Jen and the Taylors to top it off!  It ended up being a lot of fun!  We even played the paper bag game.  This was a highlight.  I think Molly won, beating Hunter I think.  Now I'm questioning my memory.  Either way- lots of fun.  We were all surprised at how competitive Grandpa Hatch was being and that he wasn't very good, but good at trash talking.  We are still laughing about how Grandma Hatch was extremely flexible (which we know) but that Simon wanted pictures of her reenacting her moves :).  So funny!! Noah was good and spoiled by us and everyone.  I think he felt loved.  I made him a fishing cupcake cake that was kinda lame.  I feel bad it wasn't my best work.  I had such high hopes for it.  But he knows I tried, I guess that's all that matters.  It's hard to believe he's 17!!  Growing up way too fast.  And I can't help but mention what an awesome kid he is.  So helpful and loving to me!  Always willing to do what I ask and with a smile.  I honestly couldn't be more grateful for his efforts and service.  And he's doing well in so many other areas as well.  School grades are always right up there, almost straight A's most of the time which has been challenging since the stroke.  He just makes such good choices all the time.  I just love him.  1-11-25

NOAH FRIEND PARTY
That night, Noah had his friend party!  Lots of goodies and pizza for his millions of friends.  It was a lot of fun to listen to them all evening.  We espeically loved the conversation about Helen Keller and how she must have been faking- HA!  They are fun kids and very polite for the most part.  I think Noah had a good time!  They ended the night with Sting Pong.  Ouch.  1-11-25

ERIKA CALLED TO THE STAKE YOUTH COMMITTEE
This was pretty exciting and then kind of died out now that it's taken so long for them to set her apart- still waiting a month later- HA!  But Erika was called by the stake to serve on the youth committee!  Pretty awesome!  Especially considering my new calling- I THINK we will get to work together.  It might take some convincing since they haven't been having the whole presidency come to their meetings.  Not sure what that's about.  But I'm super excited for Erika- she seems like she might like it too.  1-12-25

SETTING APART
I finally got set apart- felt like a long wait, but all good.  I felt like having the kids there since I want them to know that this calling is going to take some sacrifice on everyone's part- I wanted them to be part of it.  Nobody else brought kids so that was weird, but luckily, they all did VERY awesome and sat there very reverently the entire time.  I was pretty proud of them.  I don't remember a lot from my setting apart, but I do remember him telling me that I was "prepare for this calling" a few times.  It has really sat in my mind and kind of marinated there ever since.  I hope that I am able to use what he has given me to do this calling.  I hope I'm not really an imposter like I feel.  I will do my best for sure!!  I do love the youth and love serving my Heavenly Father, so hopefully this will be a way to practice both.  1-12-25

UTAH AREA BROADCAST- PRESIDENT FREEMAN AND PRESIDENT LUND
This meeting was SO COOL!! I honestly LOVED it.  It was so full of good things!  I loved watching Martha take a million pages of notes!  I took a few on my phone.  I was anxious to look up the transcript so I could read it over and over.  I was sitting in the overflow with my presidency while Nate and the older kids were up closer in the chapel and Sadie and Molly were basically roaming the halls and complaining about the nursery being too boring.  I finally gave them my phone and they were able to entertain themselves, surprisingly, the whole time.  They did really well.  I LOVED this meeting.  There was a lot of good stuff in it.  Unfortunately, it was a little long and kind of boring, just being the two of them bouncing back and forth.  It actually reminded me of "Don't Miss This" when they would bounce back and forth and I would get distracted by how they chose to do that- like were they interrupting each other or did they plan the switch or was it like a timer or something?  I don't know.  So that was somewhat distracting, but overall, I didn't mind how long it was.  I know there were some people who left early and then the following Thursday, when we were asked what we thought about the meeting all anyone talked about was how long it was and that we "lost capital" with the youth.  I was pretty bummed we didn't get to discuss a lot of it.  My favorite part was about getting to know the youth so well that you can predict what they will need help with.  Being there as a support, not to bail them out, but to help them learn to plan ahead.  I loved it.  I wish we could talk about it some more.  1-12-25

MATILDA FEATURING JACK!
Jack's play finally came to fruition!  We were so excited to see him in the play Matilda.  This ended up being a lot of fun!  I liked this musical.  They did a great job- especially Jack!  We had full support from so much family all week.  I got to see it every night except for one.  Jack did so good!  1-13-25

NOAH PRACTICE ACT
I've been trying to find out more about how Noah could get extra time to take the ACT because of his stroke, but he informed me that he is fine just doing it in the normal amount of time and he felt better about that.  Kinda cool.  He got to have a practice test this week though- we'll see how he did!  He seemed to think it wasn't too bad.  Pretty awesome.  1-14-25

JACK'S APPOINTMENT
His appointments are feeling less and less productive as we go.  I wish it felt like we were doing something good.  It almost seems like whatever changes they make at the doctor always throw things off.  They told him he has an A1C of 5.4 and that they'd sacrifice some of that for not having so many lows.  Which he was having A TON of.  So they had us lower his dose.  This wasn't too bad, but it has been a change to have a lot more highs.  Jack also had to retest for Celiac and again his numbers were high.  We will be scheduling an appointment with a Gastroenterologist soon.  Yay.  1-15-25

JACK'S YELLOW HANDS
We had an appointment with Dr. Loftus at Grow Up Great for Jack to check on his yellow hands (they had noticed it at his appointment Tuesday and wanted us to look into it with the family doc).  Turns out it's probably from the seaweed.  If only I'd found the study he found on Google before having to go all the way in.  His feet were even worse than his hands, but we don't want him to stop eating seaweed- it's like the healthiest thing he has on his menu.  1-16-25

SO MANY THINGS
Thursday was packed.  We had to do some juggling and I think Erika missed her rec practice which didn't matter because she hates them.  But we had Erika's Home Game at KJH, Molly's dance, Jack's performance, Noah's game, My presidency meeting and a meeting with the YM/President Perry.  And Nate helped juggle it all.  I was really grateful for all the help.  Didn't get home until 10:30!!  So crazy.  I hope I never forget Christa Skousen's, "Honestly, I'm just so tired, I am not even sure what we're talking about".  So funny.  1-16-25

THE TEMPLE
Nate and I made it to the temple this week!  So cool!  We were very happy with ourselves.  Hopefully we can make it a new routine going Friday mornings.  1-17-25

LUNCH AND SHOPPING WITH PAPPY
After doing packets at Molly's class I was able to hurry home in time to go to lunch with my dad.  We went shopping first and got a few things at Hobby Lobby along with a HUGE gift card (amount, not size).  Then Olive Garden which is our fave.  My dad did not get the salmon this time for some reason.  But then he insisted we got to Cabella's to get a Yeti water bottle.  I do love it, it's so adorable.  But just SO EXPENSIVE!!  But it was so nice of him!  I love spending time with my dad.  Never gets old.  1-17-25

MY FIRST ASSIGNMENT
My first assignment as the 1st counselor in the YW was to invite Brody to lead the discussion for Prep For Life with one of his parents.  I was pretty happy with how it went asking him.  1-18-25

INAUGURATION DAY/MLKJD/NO SCHOOL
Not really sure what we did this day.  Nothing's jumping out at me, but it was kind of refreshing when Trump was Inaugurated.  I feel like he will do a much better job than Kamala.  Hopefully things will get better!  1-20-25

LUNCH WITH MOLLY AND THE PRINCIPAL AND MRS. TIDWELL
Molly was chosen by her class and by Mrs. Johnson as the Star Student this month!  She was chosen for how well she adheres to the LEAD initiative.  (Learn, Explore, Achieve and Discover or something)- basically for being awesome!  All around awesome.  So she got to invite her parents to come have lunch with her and the principal and as she always adds, Mrs. Tidwell as well.  Mrs. Johnson was also there.  This was pretty cool.  We have never done anything like this before.  We had pizza in Room 1 and the teachers got to explain why each kid was chosen and present them with little gifts.  It was so fun!  I love that Molly got some recognition for all that she does and works so hard at.  We're so proud of her!!  Good job Molly!!  1-22-25

WEDDING PLANNING
We're making lots of progress on the wedding plans!!  Things are coming together.  I still need to work on getting a dress.  But today I went and scanned her drawing of her wedding announcement!  So exciting!  They look beautiful!  1-22-25

NOAH'S FARMINGTON REC GAME
Noah has a pretty fun team of all his friends playing on a Farmington Rec league.  It's been fun to go watch him play Wednesday nights.  He's doing great!!  1-22-25

THE TEMPLE
We did it again!  Made it to the temple two weeks in a row!  Pretty proud of that!  1-24-25

HAIRCUT WITH MARIANNE
I got to go have Marianne cut my hair finally.  We've struggled to make this happen.  Nate took over Centers for me, thankfully, and I was able to go get my hair done.  She did a great job!  I think this was the first time in a very long time that I haven't had to fix my hair after.  I have a new hairdresser.  1-24-25

DATE NIGHT
Nate and I got to go to dinner and a movie.  I can't remember where we ate, but we saw the movie Brave the Dark.  This was an Angel Studio movie and I thought they did a great job with it!  I was pleasantly surprised.  Good feel.  1-24-25

REC CENTER NIGHT
After our date, Nate took off with Noah and Jack for the Rec Center activity.  I had to go pick up Erika from her team party to get her down to the rec center in a good time.  But they all had fun.  Never a dull moment on the all night party.  1-24-25

ERIKA REC GAMES
These games are getting less and less enjoyable.  Her coach is just so set on micromanaging their every move and doesn't just let them play.  It's very frustrating for Erika and her fan club.  We're toughing it out, I think we might live.  But it is torture.  We're totally find killing every team we play.  I don't know why the coach can't just let it be.  1-25-25

FUNNY COINCIDENCE
With Sadie going to Zoie's party, we learned that Zoie is Mrs. Burns' granddaughter.  Pretty fun coincidence!  Not only is she her granddaughter, but she is the one whose hand-me-down newborn clothes Mrs. Burns gave us for Sadie!  So essentially Sadie wore Zoie's baby clothes :).  I know this is only fun for me, but it's still fun.  1-25-25

WARD CONFERENCES
This was my first week of conferences.  It was interesting.  We did the Spencer Ward first, same time as our ward so I had to say goodbye to the kids as Noah drove them all to church in his car.  I was almost in tears.  So hard.  We went to the Sacrament meeting and then YW.  I liked both meetings.  It was all new and kinda nice to sit and take the sacrament without distractions and being able to think about things.  I took lots of good notes during the Bishop's talk.  President Larsen gave a nice talk as well.  I felt like YW went really well.  We did our break out seessions with the girls discussing a few questions and then talking together as a group.  It felt like it went well.  So then, we had a few minutes to run home and get something to eat and then we were right back up at the Red brick main street chapel for round 2.  This was funny.  Same songs all through Sacrament meeting.  An excellent talk from the Bishop of the 11th ward, and then it was a rerun of Pres. Larsen's talk.  Exactly the same.  Kinda funny.  Even the musical number.  But it was still nice.  I took lots of notes from the Bishop's talk and even some more from Pres. Larsen.  But it did feel a little like Ground Hog Day- rerun-ish.  Still the YW lesson went differently.  I had a very quiet group that didn't want to talk much.  The leaders were very vocal and it felt really rough.  It was fine tho.  We survived.  So that was that.  2 down, 7 more to go!  1-26-25

ACTIVITY DAYS MEETING
This was annoying.  We forgot it was happening, so we got there about 10 minutes late, and then two minutes after interruptingly walking in late, my phone went off with Brad's phone call.  "Bradley, Noah, Charity, Nathan...." my phone calling out all the people on the call- so funny- so embarrassing.  I went out in the hall and got to talk to him a little, but it was crazy.  Then the meeting was over.  Pretty short and sweet- Brooke must have been in charge :).  Molly seemed fine with how things went and she is very excited for activity days this year.  1-26-25

LUNCH WITH ANNIE
Annie and I got to meet up in West Jordan at Chipotle for some yummy food.  I loved visiting with her. We need to hang out more often.  1-27-25

DINNER WITH WOLSEY'S
This was a fun night- tacos at the Wolsey's house.  How did she know that Jack likes tacos?  I don't know.  She's amazing.  We had a lot of fun just chatting with them.  We always say we're going to play games, but we never do :).  Super fun though.  We were glad Noah showed up even though he was a little late.  Jack seems so comfortable with them, makes me happy.  1-27-26

MOLLY DRY SCALP
At Molly's request, I took her to the doctor.  They decided it was not a gland problem, but a skin problem from the broken skin on her scalp.  So we are going to work on healing that.  Should be interesting.  1-28-25

AWESOME HOME GAME
Erika had a really fun home game!  This was her second to last game.  We did the snack packs, we were so excited for their team- being undefeated this entire season and all!!  This was a close game, thanks to the refs, but Erika did so good!!  This was the game she dropped two three pointers in the first few minutes of the game!!  SO COOL!!!  1-28-25

100's DAY WITH SADIE!!
I got to go help with 100s day in Sadie's class!  This was super fun!  I picked the station where we lick dum dums 100 times :).  So fun!  It actually was a lot of fun.  I was laughing my head off.  These kids are hilarious.  The drawing yourself at 100 was my favorite part.  They really got into this.  Super cute how a lot of them pictured themselves really really tall.  So cute.  1-29-25

TEACHER DINNER
We did Olive Garden this time.  Very last minute decision, but I think it went over well.  The teachers seemed happy with it.  I think this might be my last time doing dinners.  I need to weed out some of these extra things from my life. It's someone else's turn too.  1-29-25

HOBBY LOBBY MIRACLE
Thanks to the coaches taking a while to get me the balls they were having the team sign, I had really put off making the 9th grader gifts.  It was a challenge to decide how to do it and I thought I was going to have the balls to make sure I got something they'd fit in, but I ended up at Hobby Lobby looking for the perfect thing 5 minutes before closing!  I had Kelly's help over facetime and Molly and Sadie were good for that too.  We picked out the perfect white boxes, then some cool shredded black and red paper, then some number stickers to put on the sides of the boxes- they were going to be so cute!!  Some cellophane to wrap them up in.  I was pretty proud of all the things we had picked out. We got up to the check stand as they were announcing that there were five minutes left and of course, they don't have Apple Pay!!! My heart sank completely!!  I was hoping someone would jump in and offer to let me venmo them or something, but nope.  It was SO disturbing.  And then since we couldn't buy Sadie's toy, she started to throw the hugest tantrum.  I walked out and to the car, completely stumped with what I was going to do now.  I didn't have time to go the next day- work- so I was freaking out inside.  Well, then something awesome happened.  I decided to look in the center console (this is all while Sadie is sitting on the floor inside the store doors, pouting.  Molly was keeping an eye on her), to see if MAYBE I had a card in there.  I really knew it wasn't there, but still felt compelled to check.  So as I lifted up a few things to look under them, and then sifted through some more things, I realized what was in my left hand!!!  A HOBBY LOBBY GIFT CARD from my dad a few weeks ago1!!!!  WHO KNEW!!!  This was like heaven in a bottle.  I wasn't a hundred percent sure there was enough on the card since we'd used some of it on the 20th- OH!  That's what we did that day off!!- but I knew I could get some of the things I'd picked out!!  Luckily there was enough plus three dollars!!  We are calling this my Hobby Lobby miracle- it was heaven sent!!!  He was looking out for me.  So blessed!!  And the boxes/gifts turned out perfect!  1-30-25

FORGOT
Totally forgot about early out Thursday, I was working, and SURPRISE! Sadie and Molly were at home alone when I got home with Jack.  So crazy!!  The nice thing was I had asked to leave early since I wanted to get things ready for Erika's last game, so they were probably only home alone for a half hour or so.  SO crazy though.  1-30-25

9TH GRADERS!!
We got to recognize our 9th graders at this last game!  Kinda fun.  I made them all a cute little box of goodies and signed basketballs from the team.  They ended up so cute!  Thanks to my Hobby Lobby Miracle.  This has been such a great year!! UNDEFEATED!!!  Erika played so well and helped her new teammates so much!!  It has been so much fun!!  1-30-25

THE TEMPLE
We missed the temple this week.  It was extremely noticeable.  I was completely off the entire day!! Lots of Bridal shower drama! 1-31-25

DATE NIGHT- BEAUTIFICA
First we went to Tucanos in the Gateway and then Nate and I got to go to this cool show at the Clark Planetarium.  It was in the dome theater- very cool music and designs.  Really relaxing and pretty fun to watch.  I loved that he picked something different to do and that we were able to spend so much time together. I love being with him.  1-31-25